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Diamondbacks Place Kyle Lewis On IL, Recall Pavin Smith

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The Diamondbacks announced they’ve placed outfielder Kyle Lewis on the 10-day injured list due to an illness. The team added that they’ve recalled Pavin Smith from Triple-A Reno.

Lewis, acquired from the Mariners this winter, had scuffled to start the season, going 3-for-18 with a single home run. That’s been the story of his career since winning AL Rookie of the Year in 2020. Since then, Lewis has hit just .211/.291/.368 across 227 plate appearances, a far cry from the .262/.364/.437 line he put up in 2020 on the way to his Rookie of the Year award.

Arizona acquired the 27-year-old in exchange for Cooper Hummell this winter hoping that a change of scenery would help, and while it’s certainly far too early to write off Lewis yet, it’s hardly the ideal start to his time with the Snakes.

Now, the Diamondbacks will turn to Smith, a 27-year-old first baseman/outfielder who was initially competing with Lewis for a spot on Arizona’s active roster. Smith, the seventh overall pick in 2017, debuted with Arizona in 2020, and has compiled a .253/.320/.392 line with 21 home runs over 866 plate appearances since then. The bulk of that came in 2020-21, as Smith took a step back in 2022 hitting just .220/.300/.367.

It’s unclear how long the Diamondbacks expect to be without Lewis, but Smith will now have a chance to cement a spot on their bench.

MLB Seeking Overdue Rights Payments From Diamond For Twins/Guardians Broadcasts

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Major League Baseball has filed a motion in the ongoing Diamond Sports Bankruptcy proceedings, reports Daniel Kaplan of the Athletic. The league is seeking payments on behalf of the Twins and Guardians.

According to MLB’s motion, a pair of the Diamond-operated regional sports networks — Bally Sports North (Minnesota) and Bally Sports Great Lakes (Cleveland) — informed those clubs they would not meet their April 1 installment under their local broadcasting deals. Those networks have continued to broadcast Twins and Guardians games, respectively, in the past few days. MLB is seeking a court order demanding payment to those two organizations by April 13, or alternatively, requesting the court terminate those contracts so the league could assume broadcasting rights for those clubs.

Diamond’s Bally Sports RSNs have broadcasting contracts with 14 MLB teams.* According to Kaplan, they’ve met their payments to 11 clubs. Minnesota, Cleveland and the Diamondbacks are the exceptions. The missed payment to the Arizona organization came before Diamond officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 14. As a result, the D-Backs are among the creditors seeking relief for pre-bankruptcy default. That was automatically paused once Diamond filed for bankruptcy, as the court proceedings will dictate how and to what extent its various creditors (which extend beyond MLB teams) can receive relief. That doesn’t apply to the Twins or Guardians, who are seeking relief for an alleged contractual breach that took place after the Chapter 11 filing.

With speculation about Diamond’s financial viability mounting for months, MLB has maintained it is in position to take over local broadcasts if necessary. Commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated on multiple occasions the league’s preferred outcome is for the Bally RSNs to honor all their existing commitments. That clearly isn’t going to happen with every team, though, which could necessitate MLB finding an alternative way to broadcast in-market games for clubs whose deals feel through.

According to Kaplan, MLB’s motion indicates they’re prepared to do that. Whether they’ll receive approval from the bankruptcy court — or if there’s a seemingly unlikely situation in which Diamond buys itself more time by making up its missed payments to the Twins and Guardians by next week — remains to be seen. Kaplan reports the Guardians’ broadcasting deal calls for $55MM in yearly rights fees, while the Twins’ agreement is supposed to pay them $42MM annually.

*The Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Guardians, Marlins, Padres, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Tigers, and Twins are all broadcast by Bally.

Kyle Lewis Hoping To Play Everyday

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  • Diamondbacks slugger Kyle Lewis is feeling good as he attempts to compete in a full 162 game season for the first time in his career. Lewis, the AL Rookie of the Year during the shortened 2020 season, has struggled badly with injuries (including a torn meniscus and a concussion) in each of the past two seasons, prompting his trade to the Diamondbacks from the Mariners. Arizona has planned to use Lewis carefully to open the season, opting to play him at DH against left-handed starters and as a pinch-hitter rather than use him everyday or give him reps in the outfield. That said, Lewis is hoping for an expanded role in the near future. The slugger told reporters, including Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic, that he should be able to play “almost every day”, should the club want him to. Lewis is currently competing for at-bats in the Dbacks outfield with Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, Jake McCarthy and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

Diamondbacks Acquire Anthony Misiewicz

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The Diamondbacks have acquired left-hander Anthony Misiewicz from the Cardinals, per announcements from both clubs. The D’Backs will send cash considerations to St. Louis in exchange. To open a spot on their roster, Arizona transferred right-hander Corbin Martin to the 60-day injured list.

Misiewicz, 28, has pitched in the past three big league seasons, mostly with the Mariners but also with the Royals. In 103 2/3 innings, he has a career 4.43 ERA, striking out 23.9% of batters faced, walking 7% and getting grounders at a 38.6% clip. The Royals designated him for assignment when they re-signed Zack Greinke in February, then flipped Misiewicz across Missouri for cash.

The southpaw had a decent spring, allowing two earned runs in seven innings, striking out eight batters against one walk. However, he got squeezed off the roster by a couple of factors. One is that prospect Jordan Walker’s meteoric rise led to him needing an Opening Day roster spot. Second, the Cards had a bunch of lefty relief options on the roster in Zack Thompson, Packy Naughton, Génesis Cabrera and JoJo Romero. When the time came to add Walker to the roster, it seems Misiewicz was considered the most expendable and was designated for assignment earlier this week.

He’ll now head to the Diamondbacks, though he may not be ticketed for the active roster since he still has a couple of options. The club currently has Andrew Chafin and Kyle Nelson as their left-handed relief options in the big leagues. Misiewicz could make it three but they could also send him to Triple-A to serve as depth until needed. Misiewicz has between two and three years of MLB service time and can be controlled via arbitration through the 2026 season, though optional assignments could push that back.

In order to open up a spot for Misiewicz, Martin has been moved to the 60-day IL. That move doesn’t come as a surprise since he recently underwent lat tendon surgery and will likely miss the entire 2023 season.

Joe Mantiply To Open Season On Injured List

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The Diamondbacks will be without top reliever Joe Mantiply start the season. Manager Torey Lovullo told reporters the southpaw will open the year on the 15-day injured list as he battles shoulder fatigue (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Arizona will carry Kyle Nelson on the active roster in his place.

Mantiply had a breakout 2022 campaign. The southpaw threw a career-high 60 innings over 69 appearances, posting a 2.85 ERA. Mantiply racked up grounders at an excellent 53.5% clip while punching out more than a quarter of batters faced. Perhaps most impressively, he kept his walks to a microscopic 2.5% rate, the second-lowest mark among relievers around the league.

That secured Mantiply his first All-Star nod and pushed him into high-leverage innings. The Snakes set out to deepen their bullpen this offseason with additions of Miguel Castro, Scott McGough and Cole Sulser. They’ve already lost Mark Melancon and Corbin Martin for extended stretches this spring, and now they’ll be down arguably their top reliever headed into the year. The team hasn’t provided much clarity on Mantiply’s return date.

To backfill the bullpen, the D-Backs are turning to a few less proven arms. Right-hander Drey Jameson is moving to relief, the club announced over the weekend (relayed by Steve Gilbert of MLB.com). Ryne Nelson secured the fifth starter role and Arizona elected to carry Jameson out of the big league bullpen rather than send him back to Triple-A Reno. Jameson impressed over his first four MLB starts last season but has long faced questions from evaluators about whether he can hold up as a starter, due both to a rather slight frame and some inconsistency in his control.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old righty Carlos Vargas will get a season-opening bullpen job (as first reported by Eno Sarris of the Athletic). He’s already on the 40-man roster but hadn’t previously gotten a big league call. Arizona acquired Vargas from the Guardians back in November.

The Dominican Republic native split the 2022 season between Cleveland’s top two affiliates, combining for a 3.67 ERA with a decent 24.7% strikeout rate but an alarming 11.3% walk percentage across 34 1/3 innings. He managed a 13:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 10 1/3 frames of three-run ball while averaging north of 100 MPH with his fastball this spring. He’s a volatile but possible high-upside arm for Lovullo to call upon in the middle innings.

D'Backs Could Use Nelson Or Jameson In Bullpen

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  • From injury updates to roster battles, as the Diamondbacks still have to identify their fifth starter and the final two spots in their bullpen.  The two battles are somewhat intertwined, as Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic writes that with Ryne Nelson and Drey Jameson competing for the final rotation job, whomever isn’t used as a starter could take one of the two bullpen roles.  Carlos Vargas, Peter Solomon, and Ryan Hendrix are also competing for spots in the relief corps. [UPDATE: Nelson has been named the fifth starter and Jameson will take one of the bullpen jobs, Piecoro tweets.  Solomon is out of the running for a relief role, as the D’Backs reassigned him to their minor league camp.]

D-backs To Release Jeurys Familia

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The Diamondbacks are set to release veteran reliever Jeurys Familia, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link). Familia is one of a few dozen veterans with an opt-out in his contract tomorrow but had been informed by the club that he would not make the Opening Day roster. They’ll cut him loose a day early and give him some extra time to latch on with a new organization.

Familia, 33, had a strong spring showing with Arizona, pitching six innings of one-run ball with just three hits and one walk against four strikeouts. Those sharp results apparently weren’t enough to sway the Snakes into putting him on the Opening Day roster, so he’ll instead return to the free-agent market in search of an opportunity with another club in need of some bullpen help.

Solid as Familia was this spring, he’s coming off the worst season of his career. In 44 1/3 innings between the Phillies and Red Sox, Familia was tagged for an ugly 6.09 ERA. His 20.1% strikeout rate was the second-lowest mark he’s posted in a full season, as was his 10.7% swinging-strike rate. Familia’s 10.8% walk rate was well north of the league average, and his 95.6 mph average fastball velocity was a personal-low for the former Mets closer.

Familia did have a nice season as recently as 2021 (3.94 ERA, 27.5% strikeout rate, 10.2% walk rate in 59 1/3 innings), and his broader track record at the MLB level is impressive overall. The 2016 All-Star boasts a 3.51 ERA, 125 saves, 70 holds and a 24.4% strikeout rate in 543 big league frames.

Carson Kelly Diagnosed With Fractured Forearm

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Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly has a right fractured forearm, manager Torey Lovullo tells Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. The backstop had left yesterday’s game after being hit by a pitch. Lovullo did not provide an estimated timeline for Kelly’s recovery, but he will be facing a significant absence.

Kelly, 28, came over from the Cardinals as part of the December 2018 Paul Goldschmidt trade and has been the club’s primary backstop for the past four seasons. While his defense and framing have generally been solid in that time, his offense has run hot and cold from year to year. In both 2019 and 2021, he posted double-digit home run totals and walked in more than 12% of his trips to the plate. His wRC+ was 107 in 2019 and 103 in 2021, indicating he was a bit above average in each season. Since catchers tend to hit a bit less than other players, that’s decent production.

But he struggled both in the shortened 2020 season and in 2022. Last year, he hit just seven home runs in 354 plate appearances and walked 8.2% of the time, leading to a batting line of .211/.282/.334. His 73 wRC+ indicates that he was 27% below league average at the plate for the year.

Kelly still has a couple of years of arbitration control remaining, but general manager Mike Hazen indicated in October that the club could look to upgrade behind the plate. That eventually came to pass a couple of months later when they acquired prospect Gabriel Moreno and outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. from the Blue Jays, sending Daulton Varsho the other way. Moreno is considered one of the top prospects in the league but has just 25 games of major league experience under his belt. Kelly was still likely to see significant action, splitting the catching duties with Moreno as the youngster got acclimated to his new club, but that won’t be the case for the next little while.

It seems then that Moreno, 23, could be ticketed for a larger role in the majors. As mentioned, he got a brief taste of the big leagues with the Jays last year, hitting .319/.356/.377 in his first 73 plate appearances. Despite the limited track record, there are reasons to feel good about Moreno going forward. He’s never hit for much power or drawn many walks in the minors, but he’s very difficult to strike out and always runs high batting averages. His defense is also well regarded, leading to him currently being considered the #12 prospect in the league at Baseball America.

The only other catcher on the club’s 40-man roster is José Herrera. The 26-year-old has shown some promise in the minors but has far less prospect pedigree than Moreno. He’s hit .277/.377/.426 in 120 games between Double-A and Triple-A over the past two years. However, his 47-game MLB debut last year resulted in a showing of just .189/.250/.207.

Kelly wasn’t likely to be the most integral member of the Diamondbacks’ roster, but his injury does put them in a bit of a precarious position. Moreno is an exciting young player but he’s inexperienced and new to the organization, presumably still getting familiar with the pitching staff. Herrera, meanwhile, is more of a depth option who could be pushed up to the big league squad. The club has struggled in recent seasons but has been pegged as a potential dark horse contender this year given their slate of current prospects and recent graduates, including Moreno, Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, Ryne Nelson, Drey Jameson and Brandon Pfaadt. Their catching depth behind the plate has now taken a hit, though there’s also a clear path forward now for Moreno to have a breakout.

The D’Backs have some depth options on hand via minor league deals, including P.J. Higgins, Ali Sánchez and Juan Centeno. Those players will all presumably move up one rung on the depth chart for now. If the club feels they need to add to that group, it’s possible that some players will get cut from other teams as final roster decisions are made in the coming days.

Latest On D-Backs’ Rotation

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The Diamondbacks entered Spring Training with four rotation spots in place. Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly are the top two on the staff. Madison Bumgarner will get another crack in the middle, while Arizona brought back Zach Davies on a one-year free agent deal to take a back-end spot.

Who would secure the fifth spot was one of the more interesting decisions for the Snakes in camp. As MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald explored in early January, that battle looked likely to come down to four hurlers: Ryne Nelson, Drey Jameson, Tommy Henry and Brandon Pfaadt. Jameson and Nelson, both of whom made their big league debuts late in the 2022 season, seemed the early favorites.

That indeed now appears to be a two-person race. Arizona reassigned Pfaadt, who is not yet on the 40-man roster, to minor league camp over the weekend. They optioned Henry to Triple-A Reno this afternoon, taking him out of consideration for an Opening Day job as well.

Neither Jameson nor Nelson has done much to seize the job this spring. The former has allowed eight runs in 9 2/3 innings, while the latter has been tagged for nine runs in the same amount of work. Jameson has at least managed a solid 12:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio, while Nelson’s 10:6 mark is less impressive.

Both pitchers fared well in very limited MLB looks last year. Jameson made four starts and posted a microscopic 1.48 ERA through 24 1/3 innings. That came with an excellent 56.1% grounder percentage and above-average strikeout and walk numbers. It was a very strong debut effort but won’t completely erase concerns about the ghastly 6.95 ERA he’d posted over the 114 Triple-A innings he’d thrown prior to his promotion. Reno is among the hardest places in affiliated ball to pitch, which certainly didn’t do him any favors. That said, some prospect evaluators have suggested the Ball State product is likelier to settle into a bullpen role than a rotation because of concerns about his command.

Nelson has had some relief concerns himself, though he’s generally credited for more advanced command than Jameson. He doesn’t throw quite as hard and didn’t miss as many bats in his brief big league look as Jameson did. Nelson had similarly strong bottom line numbers in a cup of coffee, however, allowing four runs in 18 1/3 big league frames. Over 136 innings in Reno, he’d posted a 5.43 ERA with roughly average strikeout and walk numbers.

Henry had the most MLB work of this group in 2022, starting nine games. He didn’t find the early success of Jameson or Nelson, pitching to a 5.36 ERA with below-average strikeout and walk rates in 47 innings. Henry allowed 11 runs in 16 1/3 frames in camp before being optioned. Pfaadt is arguably held in the highest regard of the bunch but is the only one who hasn’t made his big league debut. The 24-year-old made 19 starts at Double-A Amarillo and 10 with Reno last season, combining for a 3.83 ERA in 167 innings. He allowed five runs with 15 strikeouts and four walks in 12 innings this spring.

Diamondbacks’ Corbin Martin To Undergo Lat Tendon Surgery, Likely To Miss 2023 Season

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TODAY: Martin has chosen to undergo surgery to repair his lat tendon, Lovullo told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic and other reporters.  It is “doubtful” that Martin will be able to return before the end of the 2023 season, Lovullo said.

MARCH 18: Corbin Martin left Wednesday’s game due to injury, as the Diamondbacks right-hander was brought to his knees in obvious pain after throwing a pitch.  Martin has been diagnosed with a tear in the lat tendon under his right shoulder, and though manager Torey Lovullo said that Martin is exploring a second opinion on the injury, “we’re talking months instead of weeks” before the righty can return to action.

“We’re going to get that second opinion but no matter what, we feel like it’s going to be a long road to recovery and he’ll get back out there as soon as possible,” Lovullo said during an appearance on the Burns & Gambo radio show.

Even if Martin is able to avoid a surgery, the lat tear represents another tough setback for the 27-year-old.  Martin missed most of the 2019 season and all of the 2020 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, and an oblique strain prevented him from even a cameo appearance near the end of the abbreviated 2020 campaign.  Martin has hit the injured list in each of the last two seasons while also being shuttled back and forth between Arizona’s roster and Triple-A Reno.

With only a 6.71 ERA to show for 57 2/3 career innings in the majors, Martin has yet to really get on track as a big leaguer.  The Astros took Martin in the second round of the 2017 draft and the righty even drew some top-100 prospect attention prior to the 2019 season.  His stock was high enough that even after the Tommy John surgery, Martin was still sought after by the D’Backs as part of the four-player package for Zack Greinke at the 2019 trade deadline.  This spring, the D’Backs were using Martin in a new bullpen role in an attempt to help keep him healthy.

Between Martin’s lat tear and Mark Melancon’s shoulder strain, Arizona is suddenly facing two long-term injury absences and two holes to fill in the bullpen.  The Diamondbacks have a long list of experienced relievers in camp on minor league contracts, and of that group, Jeurys Familia look to be the favorite to win a job on the Opening Day roster.  Familia has looked sharp in posting a 1.59 ERA over 5 2/3 innings in Cactus League play, and he would receive a guaranteed $1.5MM salary if he did crack the D’Backs roster at any point during the season.

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